Hamilton County government has shrunk by a third. Has anyone noticed?

Oct. 11, 2013

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In America’s heartland, one government is a third smaller than it was a decade ago.

That government: Hamilton County, Ohio’s third-largest county, home to 800,000 residents.

An Enquirer analysis of 10 years of county financial and employee data adjusted for inflation shows what’s happened here in Southwest Ohio has been an unplanned experiment in changing the role of government.

It wasn’t without pain. Thousands of criminals walked free sooner than planned, homes fell into disrepair as foreclosure paperwork languished and the office that records property transfers nearly shut down.

As 13-year Democratic County Commissioner Todd Portune put it: “At some point the only thing you can do with less is less.”

But have residents noticed? Or did county leaders – under both Democratic and Republican leadership – find a way to make smaller government work?

Has county cut too much in places?

The answer is mixed.

After the county closed an 800-bed jail in 2008, criminals sentenced to be locked up at the time were free and committing new crimes. This January, two men who had been released early because of overcrowding attacked a woman walking Downtown.

People trying to do business in the county have found themselves frustrated by the slow pace in offices where one employee is doing work that used to be handled by two, sometimes three employees.

In Franklin County, home to Columbus, the three Democratic commissioners have taken a different path: They’ve raised the sales tax, allowing the county to build a new jail and crime lab, cover annual shortfalls and build up the rainy day fund.

Hamilton County, though, has heard little clamor for new taxes and little public outcry over the cuts. Voters twice turned down a higher sales tax to build new jails and fight crime. Only once – when commissioners closed the 800-bed jail and laid off hundreds of deputies who staffed it – did the public show up in droves for meetings. For the most part, changes have not spurred widespread public complaint.

Even amid talk in 2011 of eliminating sheriff’s patrols – meaning no one would be available to respond to 911 calls in some areas of the county – fewer than a half dozen people showed up at budget hearings.

“Five or six years ago, we never thought we could have cut $60 (million) or $70 million out of the budget,” said Hamilton County Budget Director John Bruggen. “It’s been eye-opening that we can get by on as little as we have, but we are also seeing lots of places where we can’t cut anymore and in some places we have probably have done too much.”

The county's 2014 expenses are anticipated at $204.1 million, up from this year's $195 million budget. To get there, commissioners must close a $15.4 million gap.

'Hamilton County is probably doing something right'

In 2003, adjusted for inflation, commissioners ran Hamilton County with a $318.1 million operating budget; this year they’ll do it with $204.2 million – a nearly 36 percent decrease.

Hamilton County government has cut 868 jobs in the last five years – a 29 percent reduction . Nationwide, 3.2 percent of non-education, local government jobs have been cut, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Among the cuts:

• The sheriff’s office has cut 190 jobs and now has 766 positions, a 20 percent decrease.

• The commissioners themselves have cut support staff by 116 positions to 165 jobs now, a 42 percent decrease. This includes human resources, budget analysts, purchasing officers and other back-office operations.

• The clerk of courts has cut 99 jobs to 175 positions, a 36 percent reduction. To do that, that office closed satellite auto title offices in Madisonville and Westwood, which means people now have to go Downtown or to Forest Park to do that paperwork.

Greg Lawson, a policy analyst for the conservative non-profit Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, praised Hamilton County for “right-sizing” government.

He said there’s always a temptation by local lawmakers to raise taxes, especially in the wake of state cuts to the local government fund.

“If people aren’t screaming and yelling … then that’s a reflection that government was doing more than was needed,” Lawson said.

Lenny Eliason, an Athens County commissioner who is a the past president of both the National Association of Counties and the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, said cuts have meant “counties have become more efficient at what they do.”

Still, Eliason said, some counties have reached a breaking point. Scioto County has been in fiscal emergency almost four years, according to the state auditors office.

Eliason said cities and counties were created for everyone’s mutual benefit. “I like to say counties keep your records from birth to death, settle your disputes and are charged with keeping you safe,” he said.

A comparison among counties on how they have handled the post-2008 downturn is impossible to make because not all governments perform the same duties. For instance, Cuyahoga County has an executive form of government instead of elected department heads.

But Lawson said “it’s pretty safe to say” not a lot of governments can say they’re two-thirds the size they were a decade ago.

“As long as things are done, they don’t need more money,” Lawson said. “It’s about staying focused and providing core services. Hamilton County is probably doing something right.”

Office closing brought outcry

Local real estate lawyer Kevin Flynn took on commissioners last year after they cut the recorder’s office budget so much Recorder Wayne Coates had no choice but to close on Fridays.

A barrage of complaints prompted commissioners to allow Coates to keep the office open five days a week using money left over at the end of the year after the sales tax took in more than projected.

“That might sound boring, but it’s important to the economic health of the county,” said Flynn, a candidate for CincinnatiCity Council.

And it’s not just that office.

In 2010 employee cutbacks created a ballooning backlog of building permits in Hamilton County, testing the patience of homeowners and businesses. County officials were forced to hire additional staff after the wait to get permits grew from a few days to three weeks and sometimes longer.

That same year, then-Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis Jr. blamed budget cuts for a 15-week delay to sign the deeds of foreclosure properties. By law the work was to have been done within 14 days.

That was slowing down the housing market and almost cost first-time buyers thousands of dollars in tax credits. Outcry from Realtors led to overtime so the office could catch up before it was too late.

“I am not sure back in 2003 we weren’t overstaffed, but we weren’t overstaffed by two-thirds,” Flynn said, “You have to have sufficient personnel to do the jobs you are mandated to do. And in Hamilton County we don’t have that.”

'We have right-sized the government'

More attention-grabbing is what budget cuts have meant to public safety. In 2008 commissioners closed the 800-bed Queensgate jail.The result: Some one-time criminals turned into repeat offenders before ever seeing a judge.

New Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Neil has managed to stop much of the catch and release, but Municipal Judge Russel Mock told The Enquirer: “These things are going to keep happening because of lack of jail space.”

Commissioner Portune said most people don’t see a difference, and to him that means commissioners have been successful.

“It’s not been without pain and without the occasional flare-up, but the bottom line is during a time of tremendous challenge it would have been very easy for people to draw lines in the sand and point fingers, and that didn’t happen,” Portune said.

Hamilton County Board of Commissioners President Chris Monzel said governments operate off of other people’s money, through taxes and fees.

Keeping tax rates low, he believes, will keep and attract businesses and families, who will in turn grow the tax base.

“I think that’s what voters want,” Monzel said. “We have right-sized the government and we are still providing basic government core services that people expect for the taxes they’re paying.”

Another county's path

Franklin County took a different path to financial solvency: sales tax increases. Three of them.

In 2005 Franklin County commissioners cut the budget by 8 percent and implemented a permanent quarter-cent sales tax and temporary quarter-cent sales tax to rebuild reserves. The temporary sales tax has expired.

“So we were able to weather the great recession in ‘08 and ‘09,” said Franklin County Deputy County Administrator Kenneth Wilson.

At the end of this year, the county budget analysts there expect to have $131.9 million in the rainy day fund. They’ll use about $17 million a year to supplement the operating budget, said Wilson said.

Money woes persisted, though. Last month, Franklin County commissioners raised the sales tax another half cent, meaning beginning in January the county’s sales tax will bump up to 7.5 percent. Statewide that’s second only to Cuyahoga County – the state’s most populous county – where sales tax is 8 percent.

Franklin County’s money will go to build a $150 million jail, a $50 million morgue and for other capital improvement projects. Half of the new sales tax will fall away by 2019 after those projects are funded.

About Hamilton County government

The operating budget for Hamilton County, which has about 800,000 residents, is anticipated to be about $204 million; 73 percent of it going to criminal justice needs like the court system, jail, patrols and crime lab.

But county officials are also tasked with tax collection, paying bills and tracking land deals. They also run elections, provide development oversight and help veterans.

Commissioners also set levy amounts, control sewer spending and oversee some aspects of welfare, but for the most part that that oversight is done with separate budgets.